Parole
by Upggrade
Summary: A more accurate depiction of Jacks recruitment.


I always felt Jack agrees to work with Cerberus far, far too easily. Here's how I think it should have gone down.

Hope you enjoy, please leave a review either way. This is the first thing I've ever written so be gentle.  
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Shepard isn't enthused about recruiting Jack. He's certain the guy will be a massive pain in the ass but he recognizes that the most powerful human biotic was worth some effort.

As they follow Kuril, Shepard eyes him warily. He knows they can't trust him, not only because he's barefaced but also because Shepard isn't a retard. Neither himself, Garrus or Miranda are surprised at all by his betrayal.

They fight their way to the control room for the cryo-chamber. When they breach the room they find a single unarmed technician. Shepard's voice leaves no doubts about the consequences of resistance.

"We're here for Jack, let him out, now."

"Okay, okay, just, please don't hurt me, I just work here."

He turns to the console against the window looking down into the cryo-room and begins typing with badly shaking fingers. Apparently, his fear of Jack overrides his fear of Shepard as after a few moments, the console bursts into a shower of sparks.

"I won't let you let that freak out!"

With a heavy eye roll Shepard puts a short burst into his chest.

"Lawson, see if you can do anything with that terminal."

"On it."

While she works, Shepard and Garrus take up positions by the door. After a minute, a wave of guards arrive. The two men fight them off, the narrow hallway lending them a fantastic chokepoint.

"Shepard, we've got a problem."

"Good, I hate when things go smoothly." he cracks sarcastically.

"I can't directly release Jack. But there is a way to get that pod open. This station wasn't originally built as a prison, there's a flaw in their security systems wiring I can exploit. If I can fool the system into thinking there's a severe power surge, all the locks on the station will be deactivated to shield them."

Garrus chimes in concerned "That'll release every prisoner in here."

She nods "Yes, but with the damage that tech did, that's the only way to get Jack out."

Shepard doesn't take long to make a decision. "We aren't leaving here empty handed, do it. We'll just scuttle the station when we get back to the ship."

Miranda nods and turns to the console. After a moment, every alarm on the station goes off. In an instant, there's a full blown riot. The whole station turns into a war zone as the prisoners rush the guards, eager to take their revenge and escape.

They look down into the cryo-room to watch the pod open. The cryo-pod is a large cylindrical tube built into the wall. It splits down the middle, the two halves folding back to release a thick cloud of white smoke. When it clears, the squad is shocked to see what Jack actually looks like.

 _She_ has even more tattoos than Shepard imagined and a shaved head. After a moment, she stirs. Her eyes snap open, scanning her surroundings in a panic. She rips off her restraints and stumbles away from the pod. She bends double with her hands on her knees to catch her breath.

The squad snaps out of their surprise when _four_ YMIR mechs step out into view from beneath the control room. Shepard is disappointed.

"God damn it, what a waste of time."

They watch on as she looks up at the mechs. Without a second of hesitation, her biotics ignite, blue witch fire rolling off her. She raises her fist over her head and charges the mechs with a roar. Just after she runs out of their sight, a massive blast rocks the room.

Shepard exclaims "I gotta see this, move!"

They run down the stairs off to the side of the control room and charge into the cryo-room. They're stunned to see a carpet of smashed mech pieces scattered across the entire floor, a large hole blasted in the back wall and no tattooed corpse. Miranda rolls her eyes when Shepard says, clearly in awe "I think I'm in love."

They push on through the station, following Jacks furious rampage. They catch up to her in the docking bay, not far from the umbilical connected to the Normandy. Shepard drops a guard Jack had missed. She turns to face him and takes an aggressive stance.

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Commander Shepard. I'm here to get you out of here."

"Shit, you sound like a pussy. Why the fuck would I go anywhere with you?"

"This station is going down in flames, you don't have a whole lot of options here."

"I'll take my chances, get the fuck out of my face."

Miranda steps up beside Shepard and suggests "We could just knock her out and take her."

Shepard is stunned to hear something so stupid come out of Miranda's mouth. _Four fucking heavy mechs_ bare handed _and you think you can just knock her out?_

" _No._ We're here to ask for her help, we're not attacking her."

Jack doesn't hear Shepard say that. When Miranda spoke, Jack looked her over and saw the logo on her chest. Her mind filled with rage.

"Cerberus. So you fucks still won't leave me alone. Well bring it on mother fuckers, I'll kill every last one of you!"

With that she launches a powerful biotic blast at them. Miranda quickly throws up a barrier that barely, _barely_ , deflects it. Shepard yells at her and Garrus to get out.

Miranda tries to help him but Garrus understood what Shepard was getting at and trusts him to handle Jack. He grabs Miranda by the arm and tugs her back out of the docking bay. At her furious "What the bloody hell are you doing?!" he explains.

"Shepard can handle her, but not if a bunch of guards and prisoners rush in!"

"He needs help! He's not even a biotic! We need to-"

He cuts her off by tackling her, they land behind a pile of crates off to the side of the room. They narrowly avoid the hail of gunfire unleashed by the half dozen prisoners charging them with guns stolen from the guards.

Miranda is still desperate to get back in there and help Shepard but now she can't. She's forced to admit that Garrus was right. They open fire on the incoming prisoners, leaving Shepard to take care of Jack.

Back in the docking bay, things aren't going well for Shepard. He isn't attacking her at all, instead just trying to survive and get through to her. He's taking a real pounding for his efforts. His right shoulder feels like it's on fire. He's been doing his best to avoid her attacks but she got a good hit on him with a thrown crate. He'd turned into it to let his arm take the hit and it had launched him across the room.

When he landed, he rolled to his stomach and struggled up onto all fours. Jack takes the bait. She advances to finish him more personally. Once she's in reach he pounces. He surges to his feet with inhuman speed and tackles her. With his armor and weapons he weighed three hundred pounds, he uses his weight and strength advantages while grappling with her to get behind her and rolls onto his back. He tries to pull her amp out but it doesn't budge. He barely keeps a hold on the screaming, thrashing bundle of hatred in his arms. He yells into her ear.

"Jack! I'm not here to hurt you!"

"Fuck you Cerberus! I'll fucking kill you!"

"I am not Cerberus! Stop fighting me so I can explain!"

"Bullshit, I saw what that cunt was wearing!"

"She's Cerberus, I'm not! Notice how I haven't attacked you?"

Now that he mentioned it, she realized he hadn't been fighting her. And she'd seen the three of them upstairs when she broke out. She hadn't paid them any attention at the time but now that makes her think. They'd let her out. If Cerberus was after her, they would've kept her frozen. And even if they woke her up, she would have been swimming in biotic inhibitors and under heavy guard. None of that happened though. She just jumped out and ran.

"What the fuck do you want from me?"

"Your help! If I let you up will you hear me out?"

Her gut screams not to trust him but she was confused about what was going on and wanted to find out. At the very least, agreeing would get her out of his hold. She could kill him after if she didn't believe him.

"Fine! Get the hell off me god damn it!"

After a second of hesitation, he lets go. She flies to her feet and backs up several steps. She takes a defensive stance, feet wide, fists balled, biotics flowing around her.

As he stands she demands "Get talking."

"My name's Shepard. I was with the Alliance but not anymore. Have you heard of the collectors?"

She shakes her head no.

"Nobody knows much about them but we do know they're abducting entire human colonies. The Alliance and Council are ignoring it. I'm working with Cerberus for now because they're the only ones who are doing anything about it. I'm putting a team together to deal with them, I came here to ask for your help. Now that I've seen how powerful you are, I _really_ want it."

She doesn't care about the colonies but she can tell she's backed into a corner here. This asshole was her only ticket out of here.

"I don't give a shit about the colonies, I just want out of here."

Shepard sighs, he's not surprised to hear that.

"If I can't convince you to help, I'll drop you off somewhere and you never see me again."

"Just like that? I don't buy it."

"I don't like it but if you really won't help then yes, you're free to go. I'm not trying to kidnap you."

She stares at him for a long moment. There's something about him that she can't quite put her finger on. For some reason, she kind of believes him. But she'll be damned if she sets foot on a Cerberus ship just because one guy on it isn't Cerberus. Although, there was a turian with him. It's no secret that Cerberus hates aliens, if there's a turian on board... Either way, she isn't doing shit just because he asked.

"If you want my help, make it worth my while."

"What do you have in mind?"

"I bet your ship has all kinds of Cerberus computer shit on it. I want to look around, see what Cerberus has on me."

"I'll give you full access, doesn't bother me at all."

"Shepard, you're not authorized to do that!"

Of _course_ Miranda, and Garrus, walked in right when he was agreeing to help someone massively breach Cerberus' cyber security.

"Oh good, it pisses off the cheerleader. You'd better be straight up with me."

Shepard is looking at Jack but talking to both women "You'll have your access."

"Then what the fuck are we still standing around for?"

The four of them head out. Miranda is behind Shepard, staring holes into the back of his head. He can feel the glare she's giving him but he can't find it in himself to care. Jack is lagging behind the three of them, watching them all suspiciously.

Shepard walks into the conference room just in time to prevent a hull breach.

"Screw you cheerleader, I'm only here for my deal with Shepard."

"Glad everyone's getting along."

"This bitch is stalling, you better not screw me over Shepard."

"Mira-no. EDI?"

"Yes commander?"

"Give Jack full access to any Cerberus databases, servers, anything we're connected to."

"I'm afraid you do not have the necessary authorization to allow a third party access to classified information."

Shepard meets Miranda's eyes. She stares him down for several long seconds before, with an irritated sigh, she says "Do it, EDI."

Jack smirks at her victory. Shepard looks at her and tells her "Now that you've got your access, I need you to go see the ships doctor for a physical."

She reacts harshly, her face hardening into an angry scowl. "Fuck that, I don't do doctors. Especially not Cerberus."

"Dr. Chakwas isn't Cerberus. She's Alliance. She's here to help me, that's all."

"Don't give a shit who your doc is, I'm not going anywhere near the prick."

"Jack, that prison wasn't exactly a professional outfit, I need to know that stay in cryo didn't do serious damage. Let her take a look at you then you can go settle in wherever you like."

She can tell he isn't going to let this go, might as well just get it over with so he'll fuck off. Through grit teeth she growls "Fine. I'll be somewhere near the bottom, don't like a lot of company. Keep your people off me, safer that way."

With that she left. Once she was gone he met Miranda's eyes. She was _furious._ She stomped out without a word. Shepard was left alone, he took a moment to consider the new set of headaches he was in for.

 _Eh, maybe I'll get lucky and get a catfight going._


End file.
